Introduction

This section of the DirectLaw web site is devoted to helping lawyers who are
just exploring the idea of delivering legal services online through a
virtual law firm platform and want to learn more
about how these ideas can be incorporated into their law firm business
models.

Our Virtual Law Firm Learning Center is organized as online course with discrete
units organized around issues. Each section addresses a specific topic. From
time to time we will offer online webinars to supplement these topics
through our interactive online community of virtual law firms at
VirtualLawyerConnect. To explore more of these issues in depth, we encourage
you to join VirtualLawyerConnect. Membership in
VirtualLawyerConnect
is limited to attorneys. Within
VirtualLawyerConnect you will find more detailed content, discussions groups, and
opportunities to connect with other lawyers who are experimenting with
online legal services.
VirtualLawyerConnect provides an opportunity for interaction and
communication, whereas the materials found here are designed to provide information
and analysis on basic concepts.

We also maintain a separate
Customer Support Portal
where you will find additional FAQs and Community Resources (Forums)
on using the DirectLaw Virtual Law Firm Platform. We welcome your
feedback, suggestions, and questions.

“When the game machine platform of choice switches from
Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of best selling games change and
new companies become dominant. When the platform for music shifted from
record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were
crushed.”

“Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they
always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled. Insiders become outsiders and new opportunities abound.”

Jordon Furlong, the former
editor-in-chief of National, the Journal of the Canadian Bar Association, elaborates on the idea that as the Internet
becomes a new platform for the delivery of legal services, its impact will
be seen as revolutionary:

“It’s a revolution, and like all
revolutions, the benefits will lag behind the costs. It’s going to be messy
and even ugly for awhile — platform shifts are neither neat nor bloodless.
Think back to the hassles we all went through with Word-to-WordPerfect
conversions while the two programs battled it out. Remember the upheaval in
the auto industry as electricity began to shove oil off its fuel platform
and the damage that caused to gigantic automakers saddled with suddenly
unsellable gas-guzzlers. Think of the carnage in the record and newspaper
industries as the internet took away their platforms and rewrote the rules
of their games. It may take longer, it may not be as brutal, and it may not
generate as much attention in the wider world, but the legal services
marketplace is starting to go through something very similar. And there will
be casualties.”